1870.

Facts in regard to illiteracy were collected according to the following schedule:

1870. PERSONS 10 YEARS AND OVER WHO CAN NOT WRITE.

21 and over.

Female.

1st. We notice some facts in regard to the condition of the several states of the Union as respects attention to the education of the young.

According to the census, there were in 1870 in the United States-excluding the territories-6,550,808* youth under instruction (in 124,456† schools of all classes), of whom 6,318,890 are reported as natives, and 231,918 are reported as foreign; *3,392,539 are reported as males, *3,158,269 are reported as females; *6,374,311 are reported as whites, *175,181 are reported as colored; taught by †219,432 teachers, of whom †92,640 were males, †126,792 were females. For the education of these youth there were expended †$94,190,166, or per capita, $14.37.

In the schools designated as public there were under instruction 6,203,423, of whom 3,107,179 were males and 3,096,244 were females; taught by 182,537 teachers, of whom 73,921 were males and 108,616 were females; at a total cost of $63,410,310, or a cost per pupil of $10.22.†

In 13,595 schools designated as "other," that is, private, day, boarding, etc., there were under instruction 696,630 pupils, of whom 338,839 were males and 357,791 were females; taught by 24,320 teachers, of whom 11,070 were males and 13,250 were females. Total expenditure, $13,346,297, or cost per capita of $19.15. That is, the average per capita cost of education in the United States is $8.93 more in private than it is in the public schools.

In 2518 institutions reported as classical, professional and technical, including colleges, there were under instruction 252,340 students, of whom 146,822 were males and 105,518 were females; taught by 12,575 teachers, of whom 7,649 were males and 4,926 were females; at a total expenditure of $17,423,559, or a cost per student of $69.04.†

1st. The income or expenditure for education per capita of the total population in the different states is well worthy of comparison.

In Alabama it was 64 cts.; in Arkansas, $1.14; in California, $2.90; in Connecticut, $3.99; in Delaware, $1.02; in Massachusetts, $2.20; in Tennessee, 54 cents. In Texas no expenditure was reported; schools were not started there until 1870, and the attendance within the year was 83,000.

* From Table IX, Vol. 1, 9th Census.

+From Table XI, Vol. 1, 9th Census.

The states paying for public schools less than $1.00 per capita of total population are Virginia, Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Louisiana. Those paying more than $1.00 and less than $2.00, are Delaware, Arkansas, Indiana, New Hampshire, Maine, West Virginia, Maryland, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Missouri, Kansas, Michigan, Nevada.

The states paying more than $2.00 and less than $3.00, are Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Massachusetts, Iowa, California. Those paying more than $3.00 are Illinois, Ohio, Connecticut,—the latter paying $3.99.

It is still further instructive to compare this per capita with the per capita of the average school attendance. While in Nevada it is $1.91 per capita of the whole population, it is $43.78 per capita of the average attendance. In California it is $2.90 per capita of population, while it is $21.55 per capita of average school attendance.

According to the census report, New York expends for education $8,912,024; Ohio, $8,528,145; Illinois, $7,812,265; Pennsylvania, $7,292,946.

2d. Some facts in regard to the intelligence of those ten years old and over, in the several states.

Every student of school statistics is familiar with the fact that a very large proportion of the pupils never advance beyond the elements of learning, which are often reached at the age of ten. The census gives us those ten years and over who can not write, amounting in all the states to 5,543,470. Measured by this scale, Nevada stands at the head of the states, followed by Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, Nebraska, Michigan, California, Wisconsin, while at the foot stands South Carolina, and following in order Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Texas. 3d. The relation of the adult illiteracy to the civil affairs of the several states and of the United States.

Virginia,

For purposes of generalization, we may say that all male citizens are now voters, and may hold office, give testimony in the courts, and sit on juries. According to the census, there are in the several states 1,554,931 totally illiterate male adults. If we follow Mr. MANN's rule of adding to those who report themselves illiterate, we have 2,073,241 practically illiterate.

The whole number of male adults in all the states can not yet be precisely given, but enough is known of the proportion borne by the illiterates to the whole number of voters to be profoundly suggestive to those who believe that the intelligence and virtue of the people constitute the only security for the permanency of its institutions and the prosperity of the nation.

It will be recollected that 300,000 is a large majority in any election of President. The determination of the election thus far is practically in the control of less than three hundred thousand votes. But this is less than one-sixth of the voters in the country who are illiterate. How often we are told brain-power or intelligence directs the multitude. A mass of ignorance is always a temptation to the designing and evil. They appeal to the passions and prejudices of the ignorant. The more intelligent and virtuous a people, the more they judge for themselves and the less are they subject to leadership.

Had we the total voting male population, as we shall have when the census is complete, it would enable us to inquire how large a share of the House of

Representatives in Congress would be subject to election by a non-reading constituency; what share of the state officers would be subject to its control.

But the computations of the census already enable us to look at the facts in some of the states, and we will do it by obtaining the per cent. of illiterate voting males to the whole number of voters in these states as the measure we will use. In Alabama this is 53 per cent. Therefore, they have the power, by voting together, to elect more than half of the legislature of the state, and over half of the members of Congress, and to constitute over one-half of any jury in the state, if in each case of jury, or member of legislature, or member of Congress, the percentage for the entire state be held good.

And the same is true in Mississippi, where 51 per cent. of the voters are illiterate, and in Georgia and Florida. In Kentucky 28 per cent. are illiterate; in Maryland, 22; and in Delaware, 24. In these states the illiterates have onefifth and more of the voting power, jury power, and witness power. Should these ignorant voters, in these cases, determine to elect only persons as ignorant as themselves as legislators, judges, governors of states, or members of Congress, what evils could not be conjectured as possible? Verily, we have reason as Americans to be profoundly thankful that we have passed so far these possible evils, while so few of them have become actual; but we should improve the years of their delay or absence to make ourselves, as a people, in every section of the country, absolutely secure against them, by making intelligence and virtue universal.

4th. The relation of the adult male illiteracy in the country to the production of wealth in the several states.

Before proceeding to these inferences, we need to recall a most extensive inquiry which was made in the United States Bureau of Education, as to the opinions of the three classes of persons scattered over the country, viz: working people, employés, and observers.

In regard to the relation of education to industry, we found them all agreeing that, on the average, the ability to read and write adds one-fourth to the productiveness of the rudest manual labor. That is, if men who can not read and write would earn one dollar per day at the rudest manual labor, by adding the ability to read and write they would, on the average, earn one-fourth more, or $1.25. If thus the 1,554,931 adult males regarded by the census as illiterates should add to their intelligence only sufficiently to read and write, they would, according to these opinions, add annually to the production of the country $116,612,425, or nearly twice as much as is paid out annually for all the publicschool instruction in the United States; or, in Alabama, $8,133,450, or nearly sixteen times what is now paid for education in that state; or in Arkansas, $2,796,925, or more than four times what is paid out for education; or in Florida, $1,543,650, or more than forty times what is now paid for education, and nearly a thirtieth part of the present total wealth of the state; or in Connecticut, $721,275, or a little more than one-half of the present expenditure for education; or in Delaware, $542,325, or nearly five times what is now expended for education; or in Massachusetts, $2,380,650, or about two-thirds of the present expenditure for education; or in New Hampshire, $254,925, or more than threefourths of what is now expended for education.

Consider that the same opinions with regard to the relation of education to

industry agreed that an advance beyond reading and writing which gave a man intelligence to do business by himself with facility, or to supervise the business of others, added from 65 to 75 per cent.—say, for convenience, 75 per cent.,—and that for the country it would add to the production of the illiterate adult males $311,286,200, or nearly five times the total amount expended for education in the entire country.

We do not enter upon the consideration of the relation of education to the increase of invention among a people. The more general the intelligence of the people, as a rule, other things being equal, the greater will be the number of inventions, the more improvements will be made in machinery, in the various arts of living, in the means of shelter, in wearing-apparel, in food, in the instruments of industry, in the kitchen, in the shop, on the farm, and in the facilities of transportation. These results of the increase of intelligence at the present time are beyond our means of computation.

The numerous and very valuable private efforts to bring to bear statistics for the quickening of different interests in the country, especially those of education, it is not my purpose here to describe. I can only notice further the efforts made in the various schools, and offices of committees, directors, superintendents of cities, counties, states, and in the United States Bureau of Education, to work out these problems.

Great and effective as the summary of the experience of the country as presented in the census once in ten years may be, it was felt by our educators not to be sufficient: it must have the certainty and constancy of the generations. As school officers, teachers, and superintendents, they need constantly the suggestions of the wisest experience.

Under no other government in the world is there equal opportunity. A population of all diversities of origin; a country of vast extent and great natural differences, with so many separate states,- each state allowing a great variety of methods of administration,—all unite in constituting the conditions of an experiment unparalleled. The time has passed when any one asks with a sneer, "Who reads an American book?" The literature of American experience in educational affairs is read throughout the world. Constructed carefully and correctly and adequately, including all the phases of the entire subject of education, we may accept its suggestions with great confidence.

The different systems of hundreds of cities and thousands of towns grouped into the various state reports, constituting a series of state publications unequaled by those from any department of the civil service, were believed to fall short of much of their salutary effect for want of generalization.

These state offices for school supervision constitute in each state important educational statistical bureaus. It was most natural and wise that the educators of the country should demand that these should be summarized and published by the national government. There may be, therefore, now in the collection of national statistics, the confluence of the experience of every schoolroom and of every teacher. These national reports may put whatever there is valuable from the entire country into the possession of every one thinking, writing, or laboring for the promotion of virtue and intelligence.

It has been our aim to do this promptly, bringing the data included closely up to the time of publication, hoping that the immediate issue of the report

would make what it included of one year's educational experience immediately available for the educators of this country in the next.

This report is published as an Executive Document in December, but its further publication depends upon a vote of Congress. The extra edition for general circulation is, with many other public documents, delayed till August- a delay we regret, but are powerless to prevent.

The rewards of the work are experienced at every step.

President CHARLES W. ELIOT, of Harvard University, invited the Association to visit the grounds, buildings and collections of that institution.

A communication was presented from Prof. W. N. HAILMAN, Kentucky, Dr. ADOLPH DOUAI, New Jersey, and Prof. C. L. HOTZE, Ohio, a committee from the German-American Teachers' Association, expressing the desire of that body to cooperate with this Association, and proffering to present at its next meeting the plans and methods of education in Germany. The communication was received, and the gentlemen named were invited to take part in the deliberations of this Association.

Adjourned.

EVENING SESSION.

The Association was called to order in Lowell-Institute Hall by the President. The Committee on Nominations, through its Chairman, Hon. J. P. WICKERSHAM, Pennsylvania, reported the following list of officers for the ensuing year: